Ever 17 for Visual Novels. First hardcore science-y visual novel released officially to the West with that plot twisting nature as far as I know. Some of the creators on the Infinity series of games went on to do similar mystery science games, like Uchikoshi's Zero Escape series, and another writer did Root Double.

Steins;Gate, Fate Stay, and Clannad are probably the 3 most influential / well known VN. Throw Muv-Luv Alternative in there too I guess.

Kizuna AI is also a must experience VTuber, and the standard setter. She's been chosen to represent Japan to the world as the Japanese Tourism Ambassador. Her music is pretty fun too.

My gal Oda Nobuhime is coming for her crown though with her updated model! (Nobuhime is more of a lesser known crap poster VTuber, like Kaguya Luna whom is more well known and right up there with Kizuna in popularity).

Afaik, the red head text to speech character Eilene was around before all of them though. Mirai Akari (a popular blonde haired VTuber) took over Eilene's channel, but Eilene is still alive and kicking on her sister Yomemi's channel. She even got a new 3D model (not pictured). She's a bit on the more "controversial" crap posting side.

I count VTubing as "shows", and these folks are very good at performing with their avatars. =)

@terrence I remember a “virtual news anchor” called Anna Nova, but can’t remember how many years ago that was. “She” represented a fairly large leap in the naturality (Is that really a word?) of speech synthesis and text to speech. Her avatar did vary her intonation and facial expression based on the content, although she remained fairly emotionless and neutral.

Amazing Fantasy #15 is a must read! Whether you add the hyphen, a space or just have it as one word, Spider-man is one of the most iconic heroes ever! Everyone knows who spider man is and his origin story, so why not read the 13 pages that is spidermans origins. 13 pages is not a lot.

Well, this is J-Novel club, I'll stick to Japanese novels lol (If I start to go for other mediums, this comment will be way too long!! (Even I'll just give up on many titles I may mention)

Well, let's start with:

Boogiepop series:
Influence of Kouhei Kadono wasn't just on LNs, but he was cited as influence to other big name authors who are quite influential themselves:
NisiOisiN
Nagaru Tanigawa
Nasu
Yuya Sato

NisiOisiN's Monogatari along with Nagaru Tanigawa's Haruhi series promoted use of Meta in LNs, not like Meta didn't exist before, you can even find meta humor in some of Osamu Tezuka's work.
And due to wave of attack on Otaku in media back then along with this renewed passion for meta, We have Oreimo. Well, it's influence in the whole non-otaku & Otaku pair is obvious (even so many LN covers make homage to the series)

NisiOisiN's Zaregoto was a huge influence.

"And Zaregoto‘s legacy is beyond anybody’s ability to write. The work has influenced many, many, many creators. Ii-chan’s narration, the strange mixture of Osamu Dazai’s protagonist in 人間失格 (No Longer Human) and JD Salinger’s Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye, has infected writers — light novels and mainstream/literary — without them realizing. It is not an exaggeration to say that visual novels like Danganronpa would not exist without Zaregoto.The worldbuilding techniques that writers associate with the likes of Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere could be charted to the Zaregoto series. Its influence goes beyond the constraints of genre and literature: it may be one of the many parts that constitute what a Japanese novel can be."
-Kastel

Well, if we are on Mystery:
NisiOisiN's Zaregoto belonged to a movement called Shinhonkaku, which some may attribute its beginning to Yukito Ayatsuji's debut, The Decagon House Murders. (Same author as Another) It's available in English with an introduction by Shimada Soji (from the same movement, some of his works are available in English as well)

Well, if we are gonna mention Japanese Mystery, we gotta mention Edogawa Ranpo. (Unfortunately, I haven't read anything by him yet)
Ryuusui Seiryoin is the probably the only name I mentioned who got nothing in English. He is one of the 5 god-like authors NisiOisiN mentioned, his JDC (Japan Detectives Club) series has inspired tribute novels by authors Otaro Maijo, NisiOisin.

There are names that are too famous to be mentioned like Osamu Dazai, Natsume Soseki (You may know him either for his translation for I love you or Kokoro), Kenji Miyazawa, Ryuunosuke Akutagawa.

The Tale of Genji

It is sometimes called the world's first novel, the first modern novel, the first psychological novel or the first novel still to be considered a classic. While regarded as a masterpiece, its precise classification and influence in both the Western and Eastern canons has been a matter of debate.

Oniroku Dan.
"The most celebrated writer of popular SM novels in Japan." -Nicholas Bornoff
(Verical has semi-autobiography anthology by him)

Dan developed his own variation on S&M, but when asked if he ever acted on his S&M and bondage fantasies with his wife, Dan replied, "No way! She would beat my ass."

There are so many authors I may mention but the comment will be way too long for that!Edit: It might be too late to say that.